Stuart Austin Admits He Doesn’t Like Fighting As He Follows In Diaz’s Footsteps

It is probably a safe assumption to assume that most Mixed Martial Arts fans would believe that their favourite fighters absolutely love their chosen fighting discipline and would relish getting on a mat, in a ring or in the cage, to test themselves against others who would also consider themselves to be amongst the best in their chosen style.

But that is not always necessarily true, and unlike most competitors in the varying fighting sports, 35 year old British heavyweight Stuart Austin, is happy to buck the trend and admit that whilst he loves literally every aspect of his chosen career, the bottom line is that he simply hates physically fighting.

With the 2024 schedule in full flow, and plenty of further match ups to follow this year, these events will be keenly followed by the UK fan market, and for those events that are yet to take place in the UK itself, for those MMA fans who like a flutter, there will be a variety of odds and offers from a number of UK bookies for the various cards that will take place in the upcoming future, and there are bound to be a few unpredictable twists and turns when it comes to decisions and results.

He more than acknowledges that this is clearly an elephant in the room moment for him, as he loves being centre stage in front of thousands of people, he loves the training, the discipline, the dedication it requires and he has done so since taking martial arts up as a five year old. And he insists he is far from alone, the only real difference is he is happy to admit that it is a ‘horrible experience getting into a cage and fighting someone’ because whatever way you try to draw, or justify it, it boils down to hurting someone else purely for a financial gain.

Having previously fought in Bellator and the PFL, Austin now fights in European promotion Oktagon, and he recently insisted that in his own experience, the vast majority feel exactly the same as he does, but they will not say it, because even he admits it does sound a bit daft in reality.

When you think about it, it really is not though. It is a very rare admittance for a fighter and few could ever attempt to deny that, but as he points out, it also has nothing to do with having a fear of being hit, or ultimately being hurt – any fighter with that hang up, let us be honest, would not last long in their career anyway. But the experience, the stress reaction to forcing a fight or flight situation, it is very understandable as to why as a fighter gets older and wiser, with far greater life experience, would grow to hate it and cease enjoying that side of their chosen sport.

Austin would also point to former UFC star Nick Diaz who was very open in sharing the fact that he also thought the same, and he was of course, one of the biggest names and fighter’s fighter out there.

For Austin, it is simply now the case that he is obviously very good at what he does, and he is making good money from it, and he continues to fight because he knows it will ultimately put him in a position where he can retire earlier than many of his fans will be in a position to do so themselves.

It is the nature of sport entertainment and it is the compensation effectively for doing what a lot of people out there cannot, or would not even if they could.

They are almost the identical reasons that Diaz has previously given in his own interviews where he addressed the topic and opened up, and again there cannot be many MMA fans out there who do not totally get, respect and understand those stand points.

One thing is for sure, he is unlikely to be the last fighter who sort of breaks ranks and ends up admitting that they do not like what they do.